Partners

In the short term all partner HEIs (P1-P4) will build on the existing teaching partnerships with hospitals between the university and the practice areas. They all have strong teaching links because of the clinical programmes they offer but developing effective research collaborations will further develop these partnerships. They will also improve the existing nursing research courses with the new online learning materials and transfer the research knowledge directly into practice. In the long term, P5 has ambitions to be a research led university with a high national and International profile. It has strong academic departments in medicine, clinical therapies and nursing. P1 is one of the leaders in nurse education and practice improvements in Slovenia, so this project will enhance nursing development in the country. This project will improve nursing professional development, healthcare delivery and patient outcomes also in Italy and Spain. There is recognition though that nursing research metrics such as publications can be strengthened and hence its commitment to collaborating with clinical practitioners as partners in the research process. This project will help in the building up of these networks and long term capacity and capability building.

Hospitals and HEIs in the project will cooperate on development and improvement of nursing care and thus patient’s care through several activities (research groups, journal clubs, preparing the list of clinical topics to be addressed by postgraduate students, online research learning programme). At the end of the project a nursing research knowledge alliance between hospitals and HEIs will be established that will link experts in practice and science which is crucial for the development of nursing as a scientific discipline and thus improvement in patient’s care.

In the short term, this project will help to achieve the identified strategic objectives for developing nursing research in all partner hospitals. In the long term, partner hospitals will benefit from this project by improving the quality of patient care delivery and patient outcomes, since better knowledge and evidence based practice positively affect patient outcomes and reduce preventable hospital deaths. This project's outcomes will determine an improvement in the Quality of the Hospital. Partner hospitals will also continue with the international partnerships established during the project.

LEAD PARTNER – ANGELA BOŠKIN FACULTY OF HEALTH CARE

Angela Boškin Faculty of Health Care (ABFHC) (http://www.fzab.si/ ) is an independent higher education institution established by the Municipality of Jesenice. It offers undergraduate study program Nursing and 3 postgraduate programs. In 2012, ABFHC obtained the standards ISO 9001, Quality in Education Certificate, and an international accreditation of 1st & 2nd cycle study program Nursing. In 2015 ABFHC received EFQM Excellence Award. ABFHC is affiliated in various international associations (e.g.: The Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International, FINE Europe, ASPHER). Faculty staff is interdisciplinary, with expertise in nursing research and management, public health, health promotion, nursing, methodology and sociology. In the last 10 years faculty participated in 17 international & 25 national research and development projects. In 2016 ABFHC conducted several applicative national research projects. 2 recent projects are especially relevant to the project content: 1. Nursing as a scientific discipline in Slovenia– the aim was to establish an internationally comparable secondary and tertiary nursing education system which allows for the development of the profession and science and to set the framework for the establishment of interdisciplinary research connected with nursing. 2. EU project Creating a pilot network of nurse educators and regulators (CC4HCA) (2015-2016). ABFHC is one of the leaders in nurse education and practice improvements in Slovenia.

ABFHC is the lead organization, thus it will be responsible for Work package (WP)7 (management), and lead WP1, 5. It has experiences in international research and development projects, as partners and leaders. ABFHC led individual WPs in the international projects and was a leader of the national projects. ABFHC is one of the leaders in nurse education and practice improvements in Slovenia. It organizes once a year a national conference My cereer-Quo Vadis that sets high standards for the development of nursing as a scientific discipline in Slovenia and encourages socially responsible nursing that is based on evidence-based work, research, professional knowledge, ethics and professional development. ABFHC is also leading an important national project on nursing as a scientific discipline. ABFHC is a part of European Study on the support for the definition of core competences of healthcare assistants (CC4HCA), and was a part of European project Creating a pilot network of nurse educators and regulators (SANCO/1/2009). In the past international projects ABFHC was responsible for designing and implementing study and analyzing the results of different qualitative and quantitative studies within the international projects. ABFHC has experiences in leading individual WPs within the international projects. Most of them were involving a design and implementation of the study and the analysis of the results. ABFHC research team has experiences in qualitative and qualitative methods.

The University of Alicante (UA)

The University of Alicante (UA) (https://www.ua.es/en/) was created in 1979. It educates and trains more than 36.000 students and offers more than 80 undergraduate and 96 postgraduate programmes. UA hosts more than 227 research groups and employs over 2.400 researchers/educators. Within UA, the Technology Transfer Office is responsible of all industrial liaison activities and aims to increase cooperation between the UA and companies. UA has a vast experience in implementing EU funded projects in different programmes and areas, with contacts in more than 60 countries worldwide. UA is presently coordinating 12 new projects. Its Faculty of Health Sciences, is well-known in Spain for its Nursing Department and Nursing Studies. The Faculty is considered as one of the most productive ones regarding healthcare research in Spain outlining its professors’ professional background and curricula. This Faculty has a wide network of healthcare institutions (nationwide and internationally) and clinical collaborators. The scientific production places the faculty in a prominent place. They have participated in other EU projects related to Healthcare and Nursing such as ISTEW, Palliare and PPS Project. In September 2016 they started their contribution within MATE Project. Faculty has a considerable experience on managing a range of externally funded projects in Spain, Latin America and USA; and is an active partner at the EIP-AHA (European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing).

UA team will lead WP3 (development of learning materials) and WP6 (dissemination and sustainability) and participate in other WPs. As mentioned before, the UA Team has participated within different European Project’s Workpackages and Intellectual Outputs from other Erasmus+ proposals, especially in tasks regarding Educational Research in the Area of Nursing and Healthcare, which represent one of their core values. Their previous experience comes from the field of: Literature Review Tasks and Literature Search Strategies, Evaluation Framework Development, Educational Modules Development, Dissemination, Quality Assurance and Risk Assessment along the Research Process, Exploitation and ICT applied to Education. Their team is formally composed by colleagues coming from different Nursing areas/roles: Clinical contexts; Policy, Management and Administration; Academics and Faculty (Education & Research) as well as Technology and Innovation. This efficient structure permits them to contact experts on different topics and move from methodological and research issues to clinical aspects and social impact which is crucial for this project. Team leader Dr Lillo-Crespo will be in a double role, as a link between HEI and participating hospital.

The mission of University of Udine

The mission of University of Udine (http://www.uniud.it/en) (UniUd) is to promote higher education by imparting knowledge and generating new ideas. The key to its success in academic achievement on the local, national and international scene lies in the quality and enthusiasm of its excellent teaching staff and ever-growing international learning environment with its up-to-date research and state-of-the-art facilities. UniUd plays a major role in transferring technology and innovative knowledge, serving the community and the world of manufacture and economics. The courses offered by the UniUd stand out for their concern towards the development of society and new professions, and its distinction is also evidenced by both the employment data of graduates from Udine and the excellent placements in the annual national rankings. The University is organized in 4 main areas: Scientific, Humanities and Educational, Medical, Economics and Law. In the academic year 17/18 UniUd has organized 36 courses of bachelors degree. 33 master courses, 4 single-cycle degree courses and 15 PhD courses. The number of students enrolled is app. 15.500. The UniUd is actively involved in student and staff exchange projects within the EU (250 Bilateral agreements). Cuurently the Nursing Bachelor is partner in Erasmus project KA2 KA203 iCONNECT and Cost Action project CA 15208: RATIONING – MISSED NURSING CARE: AN INTERNATIONAL AND MULTIDIMENSIONAL PROBLEM (RANCARE).

They will lead WP8 (quality assurance) and actively participate in other WPs. As UniUd emphasizes on research in differents fields, it is also based on an evidence based approach to help nursing students to make informed decisions by learning from the researching results. Along a continuum line of theory and practice, the critical thinking and evidence-based skills are developed. Furthermore, there is a strong collaboration with Health Care Setting and Community in promoting research questions, implementing best practices to improve the quality of nursing care, reducing the gap theory-practice. An active role of the Bachelor Nursing programme is in research project in which are often involved nursing students in collecting data.

The University of Limerick (UL)

The University of Limerick (UL) (http://www.ul.ie/) with over 13,000 students and 1,300 staff is an energetic and enterprising institution with a proud record of innovation and excellence in education, research and scholarship. The dynamic, entrepreneurial and pioneering values which drive UL’s mission and strategy ensures that we capitalise on local, national and international engagement and connectivity. We are renowned for providing an outstanding student experience and conducting leading edge research. Our commitment is to make a difference by shaping the future through educating and empowering our students. The Department of Nursing and Midwifery offers a full portfolio of undergraduate and postgraduate educational provision in the education of nurses and midwives nationally and Internationally. It also has a full research programme which includes PhD and Masters by Research courses.

The University of Limerick will take the lead on WP2. They have a valuable expertise in nursing research cooperation between HEI and hospital. Project coordinator at the University of Limerick Dr Murphy, has a joint appointment between the University of Limerick and the University of Limerick Hospital Group as a Professor of Clinical Nursing. She devised the nursing and midwifery research strategy for the hospital group which is currently being implemented. She has experience in leading funded projects and work packages within larger research projects. This partner will be responsible for WP2, to organize the 2nd project meeting in Limerick and will participate in WPs 1, 3, 4, 6-8.

Faculty of organizational sciences

University of Maribor (www.um.si) is the second largest university in Slovenia. It was established in 1975. It comprises of 17 faculties covering a broad spectre of fields. There are currently over 19,000 students enrolled and we employ over 1,700 staff members.

Faculty of organizational sciences (www.fov.si) was a founding member of the University of Maribor. It was established 59 years ago and is located in Kranj. It is the only University member located in the Gorenjska region of Slovenia. We offer studies in the fields of human resource and education management, information systems and engineering of business systems on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd cycle. Our master’s programs (2nd cycle) are ECBE accredited. All of our studies involve blended learning in the sense that approx. half of lectures are in the form of e-lectures. We also have a joint study programme aimed at students wishing to study healthcare and social management with the Faculty of health sciences on the 2nd cycle.

We will contribute to the project with our experiences from e-learning in tutoring best practices, ensuring information technology and support in developing e-learning materials as well as setting up and maintaining educational platform.

We offer approx. half of each of our courses in the forms of e-lectures and we have set up two e-learning environments offering a separate testing site with the newest extensions. Our professors use web conferencing system for online learning which offers a new dimension with its duplex communication.

For the past 19 years our faculty has been a co-organizer of a conference titles Education in Information Society dealing with e-learning from kindergartens, primary and secondary education, university level and life-long learning. Archive of all proceedings is available online at vivid.fov.uni-mb.si Our professors have experiences with lecturing abroad. We believe that intercultural understanding and a broader horizon will have a positive impact on the proposed project. Some of our professors are teaching informatics in nursing making us familiar with the field.

The General Hospital Jesenice

The General Hospital Jesenice is a regional, public hospital that has been providing secondary-level healthcare services since 1948. This institution is a Secondary Care facility. It offers specialist inpatient treatment and specialist outpatient treatment with dialysis. Hospital offers a wide range of specialist medical services, which are primarily provided within four basic hospital departments: surgery, internal medicine, pediatrics, and gynecology and obstetrics. A daytime clinic, a nursing unit, and an intensive care unit are in place as part of inpatient treatment. An accident and emergency service is available 24/7.

It is located only 10 minutes from the Austrian border and 30 minutes from the Italian border. The hospital has 290 beds. The hospital has an ISO 9001 accreditation and has a high reputation also in the national health system. Inpatient and outpatient services are offered. The intensive care unit is divided into two parts, one for internal medicine and one for the surgery, both with artificial respiration. In 2010 the hospital was awarded the German TEMOS – Quality in Medical care – worldwide certificate. The hospital has received the DNV certificate (Det Norske Veritas – National Integrated Accreditation for Healthcare Organizations NIAHO) in 2011, as the the first hospital in Slovenia and has been awarded as a family friendly company. Basic values of employees are responsibility towards the patients and a professional approach to the work they do.

Partner hospitals in the project are of great importance because the emphasis is on knowledge alliance and partnership. HEIs itself cannot achieve the objectives and planned outcomes without the contribution of the hospital. It is also important that hospitals from different countries are included, since we wish to address some national specifics as well as some identified international issues. The consortium consists of HEIs as well as the hospitals whose objectives are aligned with the project aims. This is important to achieve project objectives as well as for the sustainability of activities that will start within the project.

Hospital will in partnership with HEI establish research group and connect it with researchers at HEI, establish journal club, identify research priorities in practice and address them jointly with HEI, participate in the evaluation of online learning programs, participate in panel of experts and other studies important for nursing research development in the hospital, disseminate the project results; participate in the preparation of a guideline document on nursing research development.

HLA Grupo Hospitalario

We started off in the city of Alicante as Vistahermosa Maternity Clinic that was inaugurated in November, 1963. Since then and right up until the present day, given our unwavering desire to improve the quality of our health care, Clínica Vistahermosa has continued to grow and it is now one of the leading private hospitals in the province of Alicante and the Costa Blanca. Clínica Vistahermosa provides personalised assistance and a range of healthcare services based on top quality healthcare attention. Our professionals work with the latest medical advances in a privileged environment that is located in an easily accessible area on the way into the city centre of Alicante. As a result of the institutional cooperation policy to support research and training, Clínica Vistahermosa has signed agreements with numerous educational institutions and entities, such as the one signed with the Universidad Miguel Hernández in 2000 through which a pioneering experience started all over Spain: the University Master’s Degree in Reproductive Medicine and Geneticss. We have signed other agreements with the University of Alicante and the Universidad Cardenal Herrera – CEU of Elche to organise work experience in nursing and nutrition, along with a visual project called Embryotraining Project whose objective is to create a virtual environment to train embryologists. Nowadays it is one of the only hospitals hosting Nursing Incoming Erasmus Students from different European Countries.

Azienda per L'Assistenza Sanitaria

The Health Care Service Reforms of Friuli-Venezia Giulia has been applied since January 1st 2015, unifying part of the previous Local Health Care Services of the Middle and the North of Udine province in an enlarged trust called “Azienda per l’assistenza sanitaria n. 3 Alto Friuli – Collinare – Medio Friuli (AAS 3). The mission of e AAS n 3 is to realize the objectives of the Regional Health Care System, in order to assure effective interventions to promote health and treat diseases, based on appropriateness and efficiency criteria and taking into account the community’s needs. AAS 3’s organization is designed to protect health to the individuals and communities based on principles of equity and the right of choices of persons to access to social and health care services. The continuity of care - from hospital to community, is guaranteed by an integrated multidisciplinary and multiprofessional approach, including social and health coordination. Part of AAS 3 are 2 hospitals – S. Daniele and Tolmezzo, 4 Local Health Care Districts, the Mental Department, the Prevention Department and Drug Addict Department.